roversfan99

Shocking for many clubs? Sunderland in 2 spells, once when often using him as a wide player and in the Premier League, and once when his body has clearly packed in. Not the best loan spell at Hull who barely used him. Well remembered here, at Swansea, at Watford where he was the top scorer in the League and at Carlisle.

Are we back to judging Venkys by the standard of not allowing us to almost go out of business?

Disappointing to see Bournemouth sack Tindall in that I would prefer to see them to continue to underperform. I dont see why Lampard would be able to feel entitled in regards to deserving a better job than Bournemouth, in fact he would be lucky to get the job. He did ok on Derby to get them 6th which is where Bournemouth are now, and he wasnt particularly great at Chelsea, a job which he got based on his playing credentials.

100%. Ive never seen him play so I look forward to seeing him next season.

All of the excitement about data etc is purely how good he is going forward, nothing about his defensive capabilities which as you say is the priority.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/siteassets/fans/fans-forum/ff-zoom-minutes-11.1.21.pdf I noticed that the latest minutes are up, they dont tend to be posted as an article from what I can see so people can know that they have been uploaded.

What about Rankin Costello and Bennett?

I think it was the third under 23 game this season that I have watched yesterday. I thought Pike impressed again, but for more regular under 23 watchers, wouldnt it be better for everyone if they relaxed the rules on senior players? I appreciate that football with predominantly younger players will be sanitised, but there is absolutely no physicality and I am not convinced at times that it prepares players for senior football, as we have seen with a few recent graduates. You look at how well we are doing yet none of the team that is top of the league is seemingly anywhere near a Championship side, even the impressive Pike and also Thompson who also gets praise (didnt play last night) couldnt get close when we had no senior options in their positions. I thought that Dack wasnt at his best but he provides that star quality especially with goals and assists and he always gets into the box which only Armstrong does aside from him, he seemed frustrated at times with the lack of quality from those around him. He also kept coming deep especially first half to try and get involved but he has to play as a 10 for the first team because he is off the cuff and not effective from deep.

Hes a centre back.

It doesnt seem that he is in serious contention within the first team picture. When Nyambe, Bennett and Rankin Costello were all injured, he still didnt feature.

Even with fixture congestion, defence is not an area that you rotate. He should be 3rd choice until injury of or loss of form of one of the 2 who have started keeping clean sheets.

We shouldnt be considering dropping Lenihan who has been probably our best player in the last month, or coming up with a new formation to fit in 2 loanees. If Mowbray feels like he has to go out of his way to give the 2 young lads regular game time, then the deals are not to our advantage. Lenihan and Branthwaite have the shirts, Bellis should wait until injury/drop of form.

As if 2 kids on loans and a young left back in the summer for half a million is a massive play by the owners to get to the Premier League. @Mattyblue makes a correct point and I myself am not that old, but many of them are very young and dont fully understand or appreciate the situation.

A big statement having never seen him play. People are questioning a player lauded by some as a great talent as to why he isnt joining the squad immediately which I can understand to an extent. Where is this from?

He might end up signing but that wouldnt prove that a deal is already set up. Such an arrangement makes no sense, especially considering that we are only paying a fraction of his wages.

I think that is quite pedantic, they are kids relative to other footballers, right at the start of their careers with minimal first team experience. He probably isnt a fully grown man, he will likely fill out even if as you touch on, he is physically able already. My post was not critical of them, Branthwaite has slotted in very nicely with Lenihan and Elliott has been an excellent loanee.

Not true on Douglas. Very true on the hypocrisy of signing players half a season in advance for not knowing what division we are in! I welcome forward planning but I also criticised the club for being so lackadaisical waiting so long to sort budgets etc.

The Pickering one is a strange one to judge, a lot of people seem to have concluded solely from data that he will be a brilliant signing but that can be a dangerous conclusion. It does underwhelm that the signing wont go through until the summer and you do wonder if he was such a stand out talent, why it is even possible that he should remain out on loan in League 1, for example if Chapman does well this season I doubt that would suddenly change things for him. Douglas has had a recent turn of form but if his injuries re-occur or his form drops, we have no credible alternatives. I do like the fact that there seems to be an element of forward planning however, whether he will come in and be first choice left back straight away next season remains to be seen, but Douglas can play for a contract in the next 20 games too and that could potentially be a problematic position solved with a younger talent and an older experienced head competing next season. Ultimately like seemingly everyone else I havent seen him play full games but I am cautiously optimistic at signing a highly rated left back as part of a longer term plan. Loan signings split people and for me they are to sign talents that you couldnt normally afford, or to fill temporary gaps due to unavailability. Elliott very much fits the former and is a talent we wouldnt normally afford, the 2 kids at CB are to add bodies in an area we are light in so those 3 make sense. Douglas felt like plugging a gap by sticking a plaster on it but as mentioned, he could earn a contract, which just leaves Trybull as a bit of a puzzle. On Branthwaite and soon to be Harwood Bellis, both are very raw and ideally we would go out and get someone like Brentford (a direct rival) getting ready made quality in Winston Reid but we do have the cover now. I just desperately hope that Mowbray doesnt try to rotate or even change the system to please their parent clubs. Whilst 2 kids on loan and a young left back who wont join until next season might not be the most exciting window, I think it would have been difficult to expect more. The target now has to be to sign up Armstrong, Nyambe, Lenihan and one or two others on longer deals if at all possible, although especially with the first 2 that will be difficult if not impossible. Failing that, the summer might be a bit of a rebuild. Dont get why Buckley isnt going out on loan.

Where have you seen that?

Im not sure that 2 kids on loan and a young full back for a small fee who will be loaned back is going for it to be fair but lets hope it is good business nonetheless.

They wouldnt be able to afford Kipres wages like we wouldnt but they are rumoured to still want him on loan, although Van Den Berg would be a 5th loan which is the maximum you can have in a squad at one time.

I think the player who played it across goal (peeled off Gallagher I think) was offside from the flick on. Nonsense. He started only 14 times in the Premier League yet has played 22 this season so your theory doesnt check out. In spite of when its going well at the level we are comparing to and hes playing every week yet when he doesnt start half of the games in the Premier League that proves it?

They have been regularly and consistently reported at that amount across the board since they happened, the manager has also touched upon them fees in interviews during that period. Speculating as to how they are paid is baseless, if it is on the assumption that most if not all fees are paid in installments which is a fair assumption then it becomes irrelevant because had the money been spent elsewhere that would also be installments. To be fair and acknowledge the Dack and Armstrong bargains, the other 2 deserve to be scrutinised too.

The minnow thing shouldnt ever be accepted and this is the perfect example. Mowbray has had over 15m over 4 years to assemble his own attacking options, obviously he has done that to a mixed degree, 2 obvious bargain successes, and 2 overpriced curiosities. You look at bigger clubs above us and naturally its easy to cast admiring glances at what seems to be bigger resources. But take Watford, parachute payments, bigger wage bill, surely they are at a huge advantage to which we cant compete? You look at it with more clarity, they have Andre Gray and Troy Deeney, washed up, de-motivated on huge wages, unshiftable, with the manager forced to try and get a tune from them. You look at Norwich, their best players all signed years ago in the Championship on frees or for minimal fees. You look at Stoke, O'Neill coming in and surely having all the benefits and perks of being a former Premier League club? Look closer, and you have a constant wreckage left behind by numerous managers. Swansea and Brentford constantly having to replace star players with cheaper replacements.

Both aged 41 and retired, I doubt many would disagree.